Manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes



P 1956 D. w MOLlNS ETAL MANUFACTURE OF MOUTHPIECE CIGARETTES Filed May 24, 1954 ATTORNE Y5 2,762,374 MANUFACTURE OF MOUTHPIEEE CIGARET'IES Desmond Walter Molins, Felix Frederic Roan, and Norman Walter Jackson, Depfiord, London, England, assignors to Molins Machine Company, Limited, London, England, a British company Application May 24, 1954, Serial No. 431,938 Claims priority, application Great Britain May 26, 1953 2 Claims. (Cl. 131-'6'1) This invention concerns improvements in or relating to the manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes.

By the expression mouthpiece cigarette is meant a cigarette in which a tobacco portion and a mouthpiece portion are arranged within a common wrapper. A mouthpiece portion may comprise filtering material, or a hollow tube or any suitable material or materials which Is or are different from the tobacco contained in the remainder of the cigarette, or any combination of the foregoing. For convenience any such mouthpiece portions will hereinafter be referred to as stubs.

One way of making mouthpiece cigarettes consists in feeding a continuous unwrapped stream of tobacco lengthwise and cutting it at intervals into separate lengths, forming spaces between the cut lengths into which spaces stubs are inserted, and enclosing the resulting continuous composite filler in a paper web to form a continuous composite rod, which is then cut at appropriate intervals to form individual cigarettes.

According to the present invention there is provided in the manufacture of mouthpiece cirgarettes, a method of forming a continuous composite filler comprising tobacco portions and stubs in alternation, comprising the steps of forming a tobacco stream, passing said stream through an enclosed passage from whose outlet it passes on to a conveyor (e. g. a paper web), cutting the stream at intervals as the stream issues from the outlet, blocking the said outlet after each cutting operation so as to hold up the uncut stream for a predetermined period of time that is sufiicient for a stub to be inserted between the cut length and the outlet, and inserting a stub during such period.

Further according to the present invention there is provided in apparatus for making mouthpiece cigarettes means to form a continuous composite filler of tobacco portions and stubs in alternation, comprising an enclosed passage and means to feed lengthwise through said passage a continuous tobacco stream, a moving conveyor (e. g. a moving paper web) to receive the tobacco stream as it issues from the outlet of the passage, cutting means operable in the region of the outlet to cut the stream at intervals to cut a leading length therefrom, and means operable after each cutting operation to block the outlet so as to hold up the stream while the cut length moves away from the outlet to form a space, and means adjacent the outlet to insert stubs into the spaces so formed, said last-named means being arranged to insert a stub into a space while the outlet is blocked.

The said cutting means may comprise a rotatable knife having a blade which passes across the outlet and thereby blocks the latter after each cutting operation. The said knife may be arranged slantwise relatively to the tobacco stream so as to enable a rotary stub-feeding element to feed a stub into said space close to the outlet.

Apparatus according to the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of ap- States atent paratus for cutting a tobacco stream into lengths and for inserting stubs between such lengths:

Figure 2 shows a knife blade; and

Figures 3 and 4 show details of a part of the apparatus.

As shown in Figure 1, the arrangement includes a tobacco tape 3 arranged to receive'tobacco showered on to it frorna hopper (not shown), and to carry the tobacco forwardly as a stream, through a confining passage which encloses the stream on four sides. The passage is formed by side guides 4, the rim of a wheel 5, a top plate 6, a channel-shaped bridge 7, and the tape 3 itself. The wheel 5 is arranged to give a light compression to the tobacco stream. The bridge 7 partly extends over a paper web 8 carried by a tape 9.

A cutting device comprising a rotary knife 10 is arranged at the end of the confining passage, the part 11 of the knife being arranged to sweep across the outlet of the passage so that the knife-edge 12 cuts the stream and the part 11 thereafter blocks the passage temporarily so as to prevent further tobacco from passing through the outlet. The knife 10 is clamped in a knife holder 13 to which is fixed a bevel gear 14 which is driven by further gearing (not shown). The knife is arranged to be rotated in the direction shown by the arrow in Figure 2. The mounting for the knife holder includes a guard 15 which is forked at 15% so as to lie astride and thus accommodate the ends of the top plate 6 and the bridge 7, the latter having side guide walls against which the knife moves as it cuts across the stream of tobacco.

The trailing edge 11a of the part 11 of the knife is arranged obliquely as shown in Figure 2 in order that when the knife starts to move away from the outlet the latter will be progressively uncovered so that tobacco in the upper levels of the stream can start to move through the outlet before the lower part of the outlet is completely uncovered. The purpose of this is to compensate to some extent for the fact that due to the slantwise or oblique disposition of the knife and knife holder relatively to the stream, the leading end face of the tobacco stream after cutting is correspondingly slanted or oblique. Also there is a tendency for short pieces of tobacco, or shorts as they are commonly called, to accumulate in the lower part of a tobacco stream, and by the arrangement described the longer tobacco particles which preponderate in the upper levels of the stream can start to move forwardly before the shorts. This is desirable because as the tobacco becomes somewhat compressed endwise behind the knife during blocking of the passage, outlet, it tends to spring forward when the outlet is uncovered, and the shorts, being relatively free and not closely bonded to or intertwined with the longer tobacco, tend to spring forward in advance of the longer tobacco if allowed to do so.

A stub-wheel 16 is rotatably mounted just in advance of the outlet of the passage, and is arranged to deposit stubs on to the paper web 8 during the times that the tobacco stream is withheld in the passage by the part 11 of the knife 10. The stub-wheel is arranged to rotate in the direction shown by the arrow, and is geared to a transfer wheel 17 which receives stubs from the flutes of a fluted drum 18 and pushes them in the direction shown by means of pushers 19. The fluted drum 18 which is shown diagrammatically in Figure 1 forms part of a stub-feeding device which is disclosed in United States patent to Jackson No. 2,652,138, granted September 15, 1953.

The stub-wheel 16 is provided in its periphery with pointed pins 20 which project from its concave periphery as shown in Figure 1. These pins are for the purpose of impaling stubs which are delivered to them by the transfer wheel 17, and to carry them around with the wheel 16 for delivery to the paper web 8. The pins thus constitute pushers, movable in the direction of the conveyor formed by the paper web 8, and arranged to push stubs lengthwise on to the paper web. A stripper 21 with a forked end 22 is provided to strip the stubs from the pins 20.

The way in which the pins are mounted in the stub-wheel 16 is shown in Figures 3 and 4. A hole 23 is formed in one side of the stub-wheel, and a further hole 24 is formed to accommodate a pin 20. A thin washer 25, a little thinner than the thickness of the pin, has a slot 26 in which the rear end of the pin fits. A disc 27 fits over the washer and pin 20, and the whole assembly is secured to the stub-wheel by a screw 28.

It will be seen that the stub-wheel 16 is arranged very close to the outlet of the passage so as to be able to deliver stubs on to the paper web just in advance of the outlet while the latter is blocked. On each side of the wheel 16 there is a plate 160. These two plates act as side guides and as can be seen in Figure 1 the knife 10 is arranged to fit accurately between the space provided between the plates '70 and the plates 160, so that the plates 70 and 160 between them act as ledger plates against which the knife can cut. During the passage of the knife through the tobacco stream, the part of the stream which has already passed the knife tends to be held up or checked in its forward movement by the action of the knife. Accordingly the stub wheel is so timed that the front end of the stub is caused to press against the tobacco stream as the knife is cutting the latter, and thus helps to push forwardly the tobacco length which is being cut from the stream. In addition to this the pressure of the stub against the rear end of the tobacco length which is being cut off helps to prevent the tobacco length from disintegrating. In other words, if the stub wheel were not timed to feed the stubs in this manner, part of the cut length of tobacco might tend to be dragged forwardly by the paper web 8, while tobacco adjacent the knife might tend to drag behind. Thus there would be a tendency to upset the regularity of the tobacco stream.

A stub is moved downwardly by a pin 20 in the stubwheel 10 towards the paper web 8 at an angle to the paper such that an edge of the leading end of the stub engages the paper first, and the rest of the stub thereafter swings down to lie on the paper. Thus as the stub is being delivered, it is momentarily positioned with only its leading end touching the paper web and masking the tobacco which precedes it, while the tobacco in the uncut stream is confined within the passage by the part 11.0f the knife 10. Thus there is a short length of paper, directly beneath the stub, which is momentarily exposed, while the tobacco at each end of this length of paper is blocked off by the stub and the cutting blade respectively. This makes it possible to clear the exposed length of paper of short particles of tobacco (commonly known as shorts) or tobacco dust which may be present on it, without risk of damaging the structure of the cut length of tobacco or of the uncut stream.

As the stubs are moving forwardly and lengthwise as they are deposited on the paper web by the pins 20 on the stub-wheel, a stub will, when fully placed on the paper web, be a little in advance of the passage outlet. Thus when the part 11 of the knife 10 moves away from the outlet of the passage, there is a small gap between the rear end of the stub and the leading end of the tobacco stream which passes through the outlet. During the brief period when the passage outlet is blocked by the knife, however, the leading end part of the tobacco stream within the passage becomes compressed endwise, and this endwise compression is sufiicient to cause the leading end portion to expand lengthwise, due to the resilient nature of the tobacco, as soon as the cutting blade permits the stream to move through the outlet. This lengthwise expansion brings the leading end of the stream into abutment with the rear end of the stub.

The paper web may be arranged to move at the same speed as the tobacco tape which carries the tobacco stream through the passage, or it may be arranged to move at a slower speed. 1

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In apparatus for making mouthpiece cigarettes, means to form a continuous composite filler of tobacco portions and stubs in alternation, comprising means forming an enclosed passage, means to feed lengthwise through said passage a continuous tobacco stream, a moving conveyor to receive the tobacco stream as it issues from the outlet of the passage, cutting means operable in the region of the outlet to cut the stream at intervals to cut a leading length therefrom, means operable after each cutting operation to block the outlet so as to hold up the stream while the cut length moves away from the outlet to form a space, and means adjacent the outlet to insert stubs into the spaces so formed, said lastnamed means comprising a pusher movable in the direction of movement of the conveyor and arranged to push a stub lengthwise onto the conveyor between the said cut length and the said outlet while the latter is blocked, said cutting means and blocking means comprising a rotatable knife having a blade that passes across the outlet to block it after each cutting operation, and the said blade being disposed slantwise relatively to the line of movement of the said conveyor so as to form an obtuse angle with the said line of movement to permit the said pusher and the said stub to move forwardly across the said blade.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including a rotatable member mounted for rotation about an axis transverse to the direction of movement of the conveyor, said pusher being mounted on said rotatable member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,093,051 May Sept. 14, 1937 2,622,602 Molins Dec. 23, 1952 2,719,525 Molins Oct. 4, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 414,087 Great Britain July 27, 1934 669,562 Great Britain Apr. 2, 1952 

